Processor-in-the-loop demonstration of coordination control algorithms for distributed spacecraft

A real-time testing system for the realistic demonstration of the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system for the distributed spacecraft in Low Earth orbit (LEO) is presented in this paper. The developed processor-in-the-loop simulation system has led to the full testing and validation of the GNC flight code to be ported to a VxWorks environment in a PowerPC8245 board, representative of the onboard computer. The developed system is built under a distributed architecture which consists of industrial control computers, embedded computers, wire and wireless Ethernet, PCI-CAN devices and plasma displayer. The system allows elaborate validations of formation flying functionalities and performance for the full operation phases. The test results of autonomous formation keeping and formation reconfiguration provide good evidence to support performance and quality of the coordination control algorithms.